‘The Muse’

“This painting is an attempt at animating the artist’s Muse, a springboard for exploring what is the point of making art? Patti Smith is a hero of mine and in her memoir ‘Just Kids’ she addresses this subject at the tender age of 22. “In my low periods, I wondered what was the point of creating art. For whom? Are we animating God? Are we talking to ourselves? And what was the ultimate goal? To have one’s work caged in art’s great zoos – the Modern, the Met, the Louvre? I craved honesty, yet found dishonesty in myself. Why commit to art? For self-realization, or for itself? It seemed indulgent to add to the glut unless one offered illumination.” Obviously, she is referring to her 22 year old self as an idealistic young artist, but while the pinnacle of success might well have been to get your art into “the Modern, the Met etc”, I ponder the last statement about illumination… As artists we can indeed offer ‘illumination’, a different point of view, or to make people look differently at something. Ultimately, however, you can’t make this the work’s intention, you have to be true to yourself, and create what you see first. Are we animating God? I don’t know, maybe if you interpret this as inspiration, in whatever form – the ‘muse’ – then yes maybe we are. Are we talking to ourselves? Well, if we are trying to make sense of our own world, then yes we are.”